VIDEO: Sea lion yanks girl off dock, pulls her into water in British Columbia

RICHMOND, British Columbia (KABC) -- A sea lion yanked a little girl seated on the edge of a British Columbia dock and pulled her into the water. The terrifying incident was all captured on video, which has since gone viral.

After the girl was pulled into the water by the sea lion, a relative jumped in to rescue her. Bystanders pulled both of them to safety. The little girl was shaken but unhurt.

"It was a pretty horrific scene," described Michael Fujiwara, who recorded the whole incident on video.

Fujiwara said the sea lion was wooing the crowd gathered on the dock in Richmond, British Columbia. The family was apparently feeding the massive mammal.

At one point, the sea lion lunged up, to which the little girl giggled with glee.

Soon afterward, the girl sat down along the edge of the dock. A split second later, the sea lion lunged again - this time, it grabbed her dress and pulled her into the water.

"I've never seen anything like that. Everyone was just gasping, they were just screaming. Oh my God, it was just crazy," Fujiwara said.

Experts said this incident serves as a warning not to feed wild animals.

"These are wild mammals. They're 1,000 pounds-plus, and we're not at Sea World here. They shouldn't be doing this, and we really hope that they'll stop doing this as a result of seeing this video," said Robert Kiesman, the chairman of Steveston Harbour Authority.

Experts also said this could have turned out much differently if the little girl's dress had gotten stuck in the sea lion's teeth, and that she's lucky she wasn't seriously hurt.